Monday, March 06, 2006

Outfoxing a fox

I watched Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism yesterday, and while I knew that Fox was biased I was still shocked by the extents they went to to push their "line". It was utterly mind-boggling what they get away with. In one segment they showed when Bill O'Reilly interviewed a young man (Jeremy Glick) whose father had died in the September 11 terror attack and who had later signed a list protesting against the war in Iraq. You should've heard the trash that O'Reilly spouted out, while completely ignoring Glick's comments. In fact, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can watch it. And that was a guy who had just lost his father!

There is one bit I want to mention from the interview.

GLICK: ... is that in -- six months before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, starting in the Carter administration and continuing and escalating while Bush's father was head of the CIA, we recruited a hundred thousand radical mujahadeens to combat a democratic government in Afghanistan, the Turaki government.

Emphasis added. If O'Reilly really didn't care what Glick thinks, why in the world did he invite him to the show?!

While the film ended on a note of careful optimism, saying that if people stand up against the media companies things will change, I don't think that it will happen anytime soon. People seem to be too ingrained in watching television and relying on it for all of their opinions to dare stand up and think for themselves. The current sweet spot that the Fox network in co-operation with the republicans/conservatives currently hold is one that they won't let go of easily.